Chapter 316: Displaced Population - I

By the time Third Fleet reached Saicine, the harbor was already prepared for them.

Golden Eagle Army ships peeled away from the convoy one by one as harbor control took over the approach.

The most damaged Albian vessels were directed toward the inner berths first, followed by the ships carrying wounded and sick civilians. The rest remained farther outside under escort, waiting for their turn.

Conrad stayed aboard Triton One and watched the gray and green markers spread across the harbor approaches.

Saicine looked different from when he first arrived here.

Fishing boats moved near the secured waters. Cargo vehicles crossed the port roads. Engineers and recovery crews were already waiting beside several cleared berths while medical teams gathered near the designated reception areas.

The first Albian ship entered the harbor slowly.

Its hull was severely damaged, with temporary plating covering several sections along its side.

Admiral Zachary Smith looked toward the pier and released a deep breath.

Third Fleet was finally entering a port after days at sea.

"Albian Third Fleet, this is Saicine Harbor Control. Maintain your current speed and heading. We’ll bring your priority vessels inside one group at a time. All remaining ships are to hold outside the breakwater until called."

"Copy, Saicine Harbor Control. I’ll open the fleet channel and pass your instructions."

"Understood. We’ll take it from here."

Smith switched channels.

The order spread quickly through Third Fleet.

The first damaged warship reduced speed as it approached the assigned berth. Behind it, one of the civilian vessels followed while the rest of the formation held farther outside.

Golden Eagle Army ships remained around them, but their positions were different now.

They were no longer screening the Albians from open water. Now they were guiding them into port.

Smith watched the harbor grow larger through the bridge windows.

Engineers waited near the berths with inspection equipment and recovery vehicles. Medical teams stood farther back beside several cleared areas, while Golden Eagle Army personnel kept the approaches open.

There were civilians too, not just refugees packed behind barricades.

Workers moved between warehouses. Trucks crossed the port roads. Several fishing boats were tied farther along the harbor while others returned from the nearby waters.

Smith watched them for several seconds.

Whatever Golden Eagle Army actually was, Saicine didn’t look like a city recently occupied by Valeria.

The first Albian ship finally reached its berth. The lines were secured, and its engines powered down.

Then the first personnel began coming ashore.

Golden Eagle Army personnel met them at the foot of the gangway, but nobody reached for their weapons or started separating sailors from civilians.

The wounded came first.

Several stretchers appeared from inside the ship, followed by people who could still walk but clearly shouldn’t have been doing much of it.

Medical teams moved in immediately.

Smith watched one badly injured sailor being carried toward the waiting vehicles before the next stretcher even reached the pier.

At the same time, Engineers approached the ship.

They didn’t board immediately.

One of them spoke with the Albian officer waiting near the gangway, received permission, then led a small inspection team aboard with portable equipment.

The rest remained outside.

Golden Eagle Army had every advantage here. His ships were damaged, his civilians needed help, and most of Third Fleet was still waiting outside the harbor.

Yet nobody was trying to exploit it.

Another group came down from the civilian vessel behind them.

This time there were families among them, with children and older civilians.

Several people needed help walking after spending so long aboard.

The medical teams took them away without more talk. One team helped an older person into a wheelchair, while another treated a woman with a bandaged arm before moving her toward the waiting vehicles.

One of his officers approached from the side.

"Admiral, these soldiers..."

"Yeah. Perhaps we were wrong about them."

The other officers remained silent. Some kept straight faces. Others still looked uncertain, while a few watched the harbor with visible relief.

In the middle of the silence, the radio crackled beside Smith.

"What’s happening?"

"Sir, some of these Golden Eagle Army Engineers are requesting access to our ships."

"For what reason?"

"They want to repair them, sir."

"Then what’s the holdup? Do I have to be called for this? Assist them, you idiots."

Smith snorted and pushed the radio back down.

On the other side, the sailor lowered the radio while his mate looked at him.

"What did the admiral say?"

"We should work with them, he said."

"What? What if these Engineers fuck up the ships?"

"You want to defy the admiral’s orders? Anyway, I’m getting back there."

The Engineer team was already waiting when the sailor returned.

"Admiral approved it," he said. "You can proceed."

"Understood."

The Engineers boarded immediately.

Several Albian sailors followed them below deck, expecting questions about schematics, damaged compartments or where they should begin.

Instead, the Engineers spread out.

One deployed a small inspection drone while another moved a scanner along the damaged bulkhead. A third stopped beside one of the temporary reinforcement plates and examined the deformation around it.

Within minutes, several damaged sections were marked.

"Your temporary reinforcement here is holding," one Engineer said. "Don’t remove it."

The Albian officer beside him blinked.

"We weren’t planning to."

The Engineer pointed farther down.

"The frame shifted behind the plating. We can stabilize it and seal the remaining water intrusion, but this ship needs proper yard work before I’d call it repaired."

"How long?"

"For stabilization? A few hours."

The officer stared at him.

"A few hours?"

The Engineer turned toward the others, who were already pulling tools from their strangely large yellow cases.

Inspection drones entered damaged spaces while several Engineers began reinforcing the weakened sections alongside the Albian crew.

The sailors eventually joined them. Outside, the same thing began happening aboard the other damaged vessels.

Golden Eagle Army Engineers inspected what they were allowed to inspect, identified what could be stabilized immediately, then started working with the crews who actually knew the ships.

Some damage was easy enough to patch while other sections were far worse.

One Engineer stopped beside a long deformation running across the outer hull of the first warship.

The plating wasn’t pierced by a shell but was crushed inward.

Deep grooves ran through the metal around it. He stared at the damage for several seconds.

"What did this?"

The Albian officer beside him went quiet for a moment.

"A marine mutant. Have you... seen one before?"

"No. That’s why I’m asking."

The officer took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"It was a squid. A large one. Bigger than this ship."

His voice started shaking.

"It wrapped itself around several vessels at once. We managed to drive it away before it crushed all of us."

His eyes opened again, already turning red.

"A three-hundred-meter fucking squid. Can you imagine that? Each of those tentacles was... larger than..."

He stopped.

"Oh my God. I’m sorry. I-I can’t..."

One of the nearby sailors immediately moved over and held him by the shoulder.

Another officer stepped forward.

"I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask too much about what damaged our ships. Most of us don’t remember those encounters very fondly."

The Engineer nodded.

"Understood. Sorry."

"It’s fine. He just needs a moment."

The Engineer looked back at the crushed plating.

Whatever happened in the Alban waters could wait. He still had a ship to stabilize.

He marked the damaged section, then moved farther down the hull.

"Reinforce this frame first. Leave the outer plate alone until we secure what’s behind it."

The other Engineers immediately shifted toward the section.

The repair work continued within minutes.